All for one and one against all

Most people offered the chance to debate with the occupants of a lions' den would politely decline and seek a friendlier venue.

Respect party leader and Birmingham councillor Salma Yaqoob is not most people.

Her recent appearance on BBC Question Time to discuss the war in Afghanistan and related issues saw one of the most unbalanced panels ever assembled.

She, in common with 70 per cent of people in Britain, is opposed to the war. All five of her fellow panellists - former army chief of staff General Richard Dannatt, Defence Minister Bill Rammell, Tory shadow minister William Hague, former NATO colonial governor in Bosnia Paddy Ashdown and journalist Piers Morgan - are in favour.

And for a venue, the BBC chose Wootton Bassett, the small Wiltshire town whose population is famed for unfailingly turning out in its main street to pay tribute to corteges of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Despite this, unbiased viewers would concede that Yaqoob triumphed, winning support from the live audience.

"I knew beforehand it was going to be skewed," she says, "but, to be honest, I was surprised at how skewed. Normally they have five panellists. This time they had six and every single one of them was pro-surge and pro the war in Afghanistan.

Yaqoob's first intervention, condemning the Afghan war as "an ill-conceived and doomed mission," was met with silence, but her subsequent contributions attacking the supposed expertise of British military and political leaders and ridiculing their pro-war arguments drew enthusiastic support.

"I'd gone in mentally prepared that it wasn't going to be an easy ride and to expect even hostility from the audience.

"The first silence wasn't so bad compared to that and then, by the second contribution, the vast majority were applauding and, one after another, people said that they agreed with my opinion.

"I thought that that was even more heartening because it was not an anti-war audience who'd come with that view beforehand and to have won them over in a few minutes shows how shallow the arguments of the Establishment are, even when they are united and coming out in force together."

Yaqoob recently encountered some criticism on leftist internet blogs for declaring she would be "proud to have my sons defend this country."

However, she stresses that "defend" means precisely that, not support for unjustifiable overseas imperialist conflicts and she is concerned about how to help people to overcome barriers in their minds to get across a clear political message.

"I knew that there were many boxes that I would be placed in by virtue of the fact I'm a visible Muslim and the stereotypes around that, knowing the questions that would be put to me.

"I was going to be presented as a foreigner, anti-British, anti-troops, unsympathetic to soldiers and their families and to some extent of even supporting al-Qaida types, being sympathetic or an apologist for them."

The feedback that she has received from all over the country, including from ex-services personnel has been overwhelmingly positive. Her decision to accept the Establishment's challenge by literally reaching out to hearts and minds self-evidently rebounded on the pro-war camp.

Washington's determination to invade Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks in the US was the spur to Yaqoob, a university graduate and trained psychotherapist, becoming politically active.

"Having seen the horrors that had happened in New York, I realised that, whether I liked it or not, I would now be associated with terrorism and Islamic extremism.

"Personally, I saw how people's attitudes had changed towards me. Perceptions became more negative overnight and being spat on in Birmingham was something totally new to me."

Yaqoob appreciated that people might accuse her of supporting al-Qaida and the Taliban if she didn't back the war in Afghanistan, but her reasoning was that too many people see injustice while doing nothing about it. She had to do something.

Her activism is not restricted to anti-war work. Nor is it confined to simply complaining about what is wrong.

"My political stance is for social justice, whatever form that takes, whether it's about local, national or international issues.

"It's not good enough to just express what you're against but say what a progressive alternative would be like, champion that and try to bring that about.

"That involves getting to the roots of questions. Why have we got inequality? Why have we got lack of peace? Just saying that we don't want war is not enough."

Like many on the left, Yaqoob is frustrated by apparent consensus expressed by the main political parties and mass media and is determined to overcome their arguments.

"We have a consensus, for example, that we have to have cuts in public spending. It's not the public sector that caused the crisis. It was the neoliberal capitalist model out of control.

"And it was not just the bankers. It was the politicians who did not regulate in the interests of the country and who allowed them this free rein.

"Given that we are in this crisis, there are different options open to us, but you just do not hear them in a way that would tackle the economic issues as well as help to address the social inequalities that we have. All these things are linked.

"They made a big deal about this tax on bankers' bonuses. What they didn't say is that it's only until April. It won't bring in much money and what we really needed was a restructuring of the economy so it isn't so top-heavy towards finance.

"We need to build up manufacturing and, given the vast amounts of public money that have gone into the banks, they should have been fully nationalised so that the money went to the small businesses that needed it.

"I believe that we should be developing technology that addresses climate-change challenges while giving people the opportunity to find jobs in areas outside the City," she declares.

Yaqoob stood for Respect in the last general election, cutting her Labour opponent's majority from around 16,000 to about 3,000, and will do so again.

As someone with her roots in the working class and the child of an immigrant family, she feels a huge sense of betrayal by Labour, whether over the war, demonisation of Muslims, attacks on multiculturalism or failure to bridge the inequality gap.

She is critical of most Labour MPs for being so compliant and failing to register dissent over government policies and she emphasises that everything she is standing for is what the Labour Party has stood for and should be standing for.

"Even given my disappointment with the Labour government, we shouldn't make the dangerous assumption that they are all the same, even though there is a huge overlap in their consensus around things, and that's why I helped to form Respect.

"There are still significant differences between the Conservatives and Labour and it would be even worse under the Conservatives, so we shouldn't be naive or crude in our approach to the general election, which is why I would not hesitate to call for a vote for especially left-leaning Labour Party candidates.

"If there is a seat where Nick Griffin is standing, then a Labour vote should be called for, because we should not split that vote. I would have no hesitation in calling for support for candidates such as Caroline Lucas of the Green Party.

"We have two tasks - one, to minimise the right-wing agenda and, two, to promote a progressive alternative," she explains.

Yaqoob is pleased with her own campaign in Hall Green, including a recent council by-election victory, which is based on taking progressive policies to the doorstep.

"Any vote we get will be an endorsement of that. I ask all progressive people to strengthen my hand and give me support because a victory for me would not be a victory just for myself personally or for Respect as a party but it would be about this kind of politics," she appeals.

She has already been the victim of dirty tricks, with an anonymously produced leaflet posted to constituents, complete with her photo and the Respect logo, showing an Islamic extremist protest against British troops in Luton and implying that she is anti-British.

"We have got a good campaign with enthusiastic volunteers, but we lack finance. It would be a real shame if we lost out by a small margin just because people didn't put their money where their mouth is."

Donations to Salma Yaqoob's general election campaign can be sent, payable to Respect Birmingham, to 51 Portman Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B13 0SH.